The Big Test

My Commercial 1 stage check is this Wednesday at 8:15am (11:15 Michigan time). It will involve successfully performing some fairly difficult maneuvers, but passing it means I can focus almost exclusively on my Instrument Rating, which I MUST finish before the end of this semester. Please, please pray for me, that I would be able to satisfactorily answer the questions and perform the maneuvers asked of me.

Humdrum

I've been kinda out of it lately, when it comes to Blogger (and Livejournal). The thought of blogging has just lost its appeal for me, and I'm not sure why. I was taking a walk tonight (just got back), and I found myself thinking about writing a post (with pictures) about my flight bag. When I first started out on here, I was all excited about passing along the stuff I was learning, and generally any sort of aviation-relating thing I found interesting. I've gotten pretty far away from that in the last months, so I think I'm going to try to get back into it by posting about my flight bag: what it's all about, what's in it, why I've chosen those particular items, etc. Maybe this all sounds terrible arrogant or something, but the truth is, I find flight bags in general really interesting. Maybe some of the rest of you do or will, too (I'm thinking, though, that most of the gals who read the post will say something like, "Oh, it's like a big (or in some cases, not so big) purse for pilots"). Anyway, keep an eye out for that post. It'll be coming soon.

Phoenix and Back Again

Here are the pictures I took on my cross-country yesterday. As always, clicking on them will enlarge them.


I know I've done this picture before, but it bore repeating. This is what my instruments look like in flight.

I took this because I was curious what I look like when I'm flying. Apparently the answer is, "scary and intense."

This is the town of San Manuel. I thought the layout of the town was interesting. It's far less square than most towns I fly over.

This is Coolidge Airport. It was my final checkpoint before I ventured under Phoenix's airspace and into Gateway's airspace.

This was the view just behind Coolidge. It was an eerie thing to behold, after spending a year flying over round fields.

For reasons I just don't understand, some people actually enjoy playing golf. I will admit, though, that golf courses are very pretty from the air.

And, finally, this is Benson Airport. I actually had a much better shot of this airport all lined up, and then I accidentally hit the camera's power button and lost it.

Well, that's it. I hope you enjoyed them. They're the last ones I'll be taking for a while.

Victory in Jesus!!!

I'm back! My commercial 1 cross-countries are now a thing of the past! And this morning's trip went spectacularly! The only reason for it that I can come up with is that I was praying hard, and a lot of people were praying along with me. Thank you to all those people. God was, and is, faithful.

Incidentally, I managed to snap a few pictures, mostly between here and Phoenix. They'll probably be showing up on here before too long.

Thanks again to everyone who prayed for my safety and success.

Weather permitting, tomorrow morning at 6:45 (9:45 Michigan time) I'll be leaving for my final cross-country of commercial stage one. It's also, arguably, the most difficult cross-country I've had to fly yet. I would greatly appreciate prayer.

Leftovers

Here are a few other pictures I took yesterday on my way home from Sierra Vista.


The building with the blue front towards the center of the picture, is a restaurant in Sierra Vista called My Place. It's really good.


This is the San Jose area of Bisbee. The main road cutting through it is Highway 92, and First Baptist is visible on the right.

And, finally, this is the Warren area of Bisbee. The big hill behind the town is a tailings dump from the old copper mines.

That's all for pictures until my cross-country tomorrow morning. Hope you enjoyed them!

Church, at 7,500 MSL

As I was overflying Bisbee on my way home from Sierra Vista Thursday morning, I noticed that I fly right over First Baptist, which is where we go to church now. So I decided to take a couple pictures on the way back from my solo this morning. The church is the blue-roofed building in the center of the pictures. As always, clicking on the pictures will enlarge them. Enjoy!

Difficult Decision

As I mentioned earlier today, I went and registered for my Fall classes. One is a classroom class, and two are online courses (most of the interesting-sounding classes were only offered on the Sierra Vista campus, so I had to make due with Douglas classes and online classes). I was reasonably happy with my choices. Then I talked to Erin while we were flying this afternoon. She warned me that the guy who teaches one of the online classes is a real jerk. Apparently, he really likes to pick out two or three students from every class to shamelessly pick on and otherwise make miserable. So now I have another choice. I can either drop this particular class and replace it with one of my other choices (sort of a first runner-up situation), or I can just stick with the class and hope I'm not one of the unlucky few who are chosen.

Wasted Semester?

In just a few minutes I'll be heading over to the one-stop to register for my Fall classes: three classes I need to take in order to receive my full financial aid, but don't need for my degree. I still have mixed feelings about this coming semester. On the one hand, it feels like I'm wasting a semester, since I'm not taking anything aviation-related, except for my flying. On the other hand, it will give me a chance to get all caught up before I go after my Flight Instructor certificate. I'm mostly just afraid that I won't commit myself to these classes and I'll hurt my GPA. We'll see, I guess.